


The Dragon of the Enchanted Forest

by quoththeraven5



Category: Mulan (1998), Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: BAMF Mushu, Family Feels, Gen, dragon vs human cultural differences, warrior stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-26
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2017-12-30 12:25:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1018584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quoththeraven5/pseuds/quoththeraven5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Has anyone ever wondered where the hell is Mushu? Well, it turns out he was world hopping with a startlingly lucky cricket and a cow named Bessy (or a horse called Khan, depends on who you ask, although he might actually be a sheep), all in order to find a certain wayward warrior woman that really needs figure out that family never gives up on each other. Even if this particular warrior woman wasn't even aware that she was adopted into a dragon's clan. She is a cub, and this dragon takes care of his cubs!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Here there be dragons... or dragon, kinda...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MueraRashaye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MueraRashaye/gifts).



Robin stood from his task of banking the flames of this morning’s porridge; his men were packing up their belongings, unintelligible mutterings flitting through the forest around them. He looked toward his new recruit to the Merry Men, the warrior woman Mulan; he hoped she made the right decision coming here, whoever she loved certainly made a grave error of letting her go. He smiled, she may be broken hearted, but he knew from personal experience on how to ease that pain, by going to work.  
“Merry Men!” his voice echoed through the former campsite, “I believe its time we headed out, stretch our legs. Who knows, we might even bring down a greedy noble or two while we’re at it!” His men cheered, Mulan only smiled… ah, well, it’s a start.

____________________

He walked ahead of his men, deep in his own thoughts; lost in a memory of a shadow and the utter terror that he was going to lose his son. Robin paused to take a deep breath, that nightmare was over, his boy was safe and he gained a new compatriot in the process. All in all a good day.  
Leaves rustled, and a twig snapped. Robin stood stock still, slowly reaching for his arrows, readying his bow to fire. Someone was muttering in the trees, the voice getting louder, the rustling getting closer. The righteous thief had his bow taught, ready to fire.  
A young dark haired man stumbled into his path, nearly tripping on a root in apparent clumsiness, still muttering under his breath; he didn’t even notice Robin’s presence until he looked up.  
Gold. The young man’s almond shaped eyes were the color of pure fiery gold.  
The stranger’s face split into a shit-eating grin, causing Robin to conclude he found himself a trouble maker, “Please tell me this is the world that contains the Enchanted Forest.” The young man’s voice was full of humor, and yet somehow there was an underlying feeling of danger in the inflections of his words.  
Robin slowly lowered his bow and answered the lad, that smile certainly made him look no more than a rambunctious child, “You are in the Enchanted Forest.”  
The lad’s eyes somehow became even a brighter gold and he turned to the woods that he had only just emerged from, “You hear that?! We finally made it!”  
Robin tensed, if this was an ambush… a horse crashed through the trees and brush onto the path. Big, black coated, and of Asian stock; beautiful and looking extremely pissed as the massive beast eyed the youngster as if he was but a garden lizard waiting to be stomped.  
The lad glared at the horse, “Don’t give me that, you know it wasn’t my fault!” The horse snorted. The golden-eyed young man sighed, and looked at something on the beast’s back, “At least you’re on my side Crickey!”  
A small, almost musical buzz answered, the boy pouted, “How was I supposed to know which door to take, its not like they had signs!” A cricket flitted to the lad’s shoulder; somehow its buzzing seemed to convey annoyance.  
Robin simply stared, he had seen a lot of strange things over the years, but this most definitely took the cake, “Can I help you with something?”  
The young stranger gave a last gold-eyed glare to the horse and turned to Robin, “I hope so,” his face turned sheepish, “You wouldn’t have happened to come across a long dark haired woman with a great liking for swords?” He mimed a hand of his head by a couple feet, “About yeah high, might be going by the name Ping? Or maybe …” He was interrupted by Robin’s own men finally catching up to their leader. 

_______________

Mulan blinked from her brooding thoughts as she came to the sight before her. A large, brilliant black horse stood in the middle of the road, and a young man with bronzed skin and eyes that only came from spirit tales, with an overly excited cricket on his shoulder. The young man looked at her and his face transformed into a grin, with far too many teeth to ever be considered human.  
Wait, large black horse, sharp- toothy grin, and a cricket, “Mushu?”

_______________

Robin turned to his new recruit when he heard the whispered name; the woman was pale with shock and eyes widened in surprise. The only thing keeping him from running the boy who had dared to cause on of his people distress off, was the smile that was slowly taking form upon her face.  
The lad’s smile miraculously became even larger, “Mulan!” The stranger barreled into the young woman, engulfing her with a suffocating hug. The horse whinnied and pranced in place with excitement, the cricket jumped and leapt all over her dark locks.  
And then something sent a shock down Robin’s spine, Mulan began to laugh. A long and hard laugh that brought smiles to all that heard. There was no way he was going to let this boy go now, not if this stranger was able to make such a broken hearted woman laugh like that. 

_______________

Mulan couldn’t stop smiling, her horse beside her, a cheerful cricket on her shoulder, and a mysteriously human shaped dragon at her side, for the first time in a long time, it felt like home.  
Mushu awkwardly slung his arm around her shoulder, he was still very small in stature, even when human sized, “It’s good to have you back kid.”  
The woman rolled her eyes, still smiling like a loon, “I’m happy you’re here, but I have to ask; how did you get two legs?”  
The dragon smiled, his unnatural eyes glinting in glee, “Just something us dragons can do – and before you ask, I couldn’t do this before, wasn’t strong enough.”  
Mulan frowned in worry, “But you are now right, you’re not sick or anything?”  
Mushu giggled, “Don’t you worry about me, I’m fine. Just ask the cow!”  
“She is a horse, not a cow.”  
He shrugged, “That’s what I said.”  
Mulan could only laugh.

_______________

His Merry Men where all in a good mood as they set up camp that night, Robin smiled as he sat by his son, making the fire. Having Mulan in good spirits certainly was a cause for celebration. Speaking of the woman, where was she – ah, off talking to her newfound friend.  
The young man, Mushu, pulled Mulan away from the camp into the darkness of the forest; Robin frowned and stood from the fire, giving his son a smile, he followed silently. He would not let Mulan get hurt by someone she cared for so soon after whatever pain she dealt with only a day ago, not when he had seen that face of hers in the mirror to many times. He crouched behind a large bramble bush, to far away to hear their conversation, but close enough to see.  
The two sat next to each other deep in conversation, Mushu seemed to be prodding Mulan to speak, holding the young woman close to his side. Mulan began to talk with tears in her eyes; Robin almost burst out of the bushes, but stopped when he saw Mushu slightly rock the woman for comfort. Robin had seen enough, that boy was not going to harm her, of that he now knew without doubt.

 

___________

Mushu grabbed his sister-in-spirit as soon as she was alone and out of prying eyes of her new protective comrades; she reeked of sadness and broken smiled, he hated that – the girl should be happy damn it! Something was wrong and he was going to find out, even if it ended with the girl slapping him, again.  
When they were far away enough from camp for a semblance of privacy, he sat the both of them down by the base of an old comforting oak, and whispered fiercely in Mulan’s ear, “What happened.”  
The young woman looked at him, startled, “Nothing, why would you think there was?”  
Mushu smiled, it was kind of cute how she thought she could trick the trickster, “I know you! And I know when my best friend is hurt, so who hurt you, and are they edible?”  
Mulan laughed chokingly, “You are not going to eat anyone!”  
He shrugged, and snuggled closer to her side, cubs liked cuddling right? “True, you humans taste deplorable!”  
She laughed again, but it slowly turned to sobs. Mushu brought her closer and wrapped her in his arms, rocking her gently. This pain felt all too familiar to him, but he could not yet put his claw on it, “You don’t have to tell me right now you know, just know that I will always listen to you whenever you need it.”  
Mulan sniffled, comfortable in the dragon’s warm embrace, “I missed you Mushu.”  
“So did I Mulan, so have I.”  
Snuggling closer to her friend, Mulan asked, voice thick with unshed tears, “How did you even get here?”  
Mushu cackled, “With great difficulty girly, that cow of yours really hates me now.”  
“Horse.”  
“That’s what I said!” The dragon sighed, “Anyway, your parents missed you, and your ancestors just wanted to make sure you were still alive; and I figured if you weren’t there you had to be somewhere else. So that’s what I did, I went somewhere else, just so happens ‘somewhere else’ is a lot of places, a lot places that may or may not have gotten all three of turned around more times than I could count. But I’m here now, and so is lucky Crickey, and even your dumb cow made it; you’re not going to get rid of us so easy.”  
Mulan glared sullenly at him, “That was one of the vaguest descriptions I have ever heard.”  
Mushu sighed, “Yes well, it’s getting dark, we should probably get you into bed.”  
The woman rolled her eyes and stubbornly stayed glued to his side. A moment of comfortable, sleepy silence passed between them, only broken with Mulan’s hesitant question, “Mushu, why are you here? I ran away from you, from everyone, why did you go through such effort to find me?”  
The dragon snorted and turned Mulan to look at her with fathomless golden eyes, murmuring “Silly cub,” he shook his head and spoke strongly, “Do you remember when we first met? I could barely sneeze a flame, on accident! You gave me strength Mulan, you brought my fire back, you believed in me when no one else did. I was once the ‘demoted one’, nothing more than a mistake, you saw past that, and you accepted me for what I was. And that means more to me than you know. Mulan, there is nothing, nothing you can ever do that I will hang over you, we clan now, family. And family means, that if one of us goes running off without even a note goodbye, the other will follow, not matter how difficult.”  
Mulan slowly smiled, surprise still flicking in her eyes, “Thank you Mushu.”  
The dragon smiled, and stood, dragging the woman with him, “No, thank you. Now let’s go get some food before that gaggle eats it all.”  
Mulan could only answer with a laugh.

____________

Robin turned to watch the two friends emerge from the wood, he had never seen Mulan so relaxed and at ease before; whatever those two had spoken of certainly helped her heal, he was glad.  
Mushu and Mulan shared a smile and turned to receive their meal from an ever boisterous Little John; the golden-eyed young man ruffling small Roland’s hair. Yes,, he was glad this ‘Mushu’ had come along.


	2. Wanderings1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of Mushu's unnecessarily long road trip. (this occurs before he finds Mulan)

The spirits gathered in the shrine, awakened once again by the disturbance brought from one of their more willful descendants. The first ancestor Fa sighed in untold misery, what has become of his family to allow such behavior to constantly occur, “She must be found before some untold disaster befalls her, she is the last descendant of the Fa.”  
To bad no one knows where the blasted girl went!

______________

The elderly woman smirked mischievously as her son and his wife quietly argued, their fear for their daughter emerging as frustration toward the other. She wasn’t worried though, after all the girl can take care of herself; however, one could never be to careful. Standing from her very important game of checkers, “If both of you are so worried, why not ask for the ancestor’s assistance?”  
Fa Zhou pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping to stave off a headache, “I have mother, but how can I stop worrying, I am a father it is what we do.”  
Fa Li smiled at her mother-in-law, “I know she left that note, but I can’t help but feel like it was the war again. Yes she came back, but what if she gets hurt?”  
Grandmother Fa let out a small cackle, “Then I suppose we need to send someone after the girl, let’s go find that pesky guardian of ours.”  
“Guardian?” Fa Zhou could not help but gulp in trepidation.

________________

Mushu smiled at Cricky as he twisted through the air, feeling the wind curve around his serpentine body as he sliced through the wind currents; he was slowly getting bigger as the days past, that demotion really had really thrown him through the loop, and to think, he use to be an averaged sized dragon once upon a time.  
He slowly curved down toward the earth below, firmly keeping Cricky in his clawed hand, he had an overgrown cow to find, or maybe it was a sheep, he could never tell with the four-leggers.

________________

A large black stallion stood grazing on sweet grass, peaceful and content in the hilly paradise that surrounded him. That peace did not last, as the fire breathing lizard that only ever brought his headaches landed in front of him. Khan really wanted to stomp on the thing, however the red menace was now the size of a large dog, making such a desire very difficult to fulfill. At least that cricket wasn’t as annoying, Khan silently thanked whatever deities there were for that small blessing.  
The dragon grinned, its sharp predatory teeth gleaming in the sun, it started moving its mouth and human noises emerged, but Khan was not paying attention to the two-legger words but to the feelings that the creature passed along: Spirit-sister, missing-sun, galloping-away-from-shelter, open-pastures, searching-long-nights.  
Khan nodded in understanding, the girl must be found and the lizard knew how to find her. 

________________

They were surrounded by doors: big doors, small doors, eye bursting color, drab grays, even a mirror was encased in the strange circular room. Cricky made a questioning sound and Khan snorted in frustration.  
Mushu walked around the room, closely inspecting each door, he was still tripping over his two feet. How humans managed was beyond him. He stopped in front of a bright green door, his golden eyes squinting in concentration; green was the color of trees, so it was only logical that a forest would be on the other side, right? Mushu cleared his throat dramatically, “This is the door we have been looking for!”  
Khan rolled his eyes, and Cricky fluttered excitedly. As the three companions walked through the door, Mushu couldn't help but wonder what the letters 'O-Z' meant.


End file.
